Springtime smiles
During the past few years I noticed that springtime evokes thoughts of hope, excitement, freshness, and inspiration, when we think of it at literally any other time of the year than the spring itself. End of March always seems to bring low key exhaustion, demotivation and annoying colds to most people around. Blame the spring solstice and the moody weather for all the temporary evil, but year in and year out I experience this weird time with feelings of distrust towards the conditions, which seem to mock us for expecting it to be the most beautiful season.
Three naps in one forenoon and brisk moments of bright sunshine achieve little as remedy for my low energy, competing with today’s suboptimal air pressure for the deepest dive. Following an impulse of nonconformist power (not unlikely resulting from a rush of afternoon caffeine in my blood) I decided to spontaneously seek whatever may oppose the ironic gloom of the day. That’s how I recalled my favourite quote from an article by Noa Kageyama PhD, on the power of tuning in for smiles around us.
During my music pedagogy studies I became deeply interested in the role of psychology and neuroscience in the process of learning and performing music. Kageyama’s newsletter and podcast belong to the most interesting (in my opinion) free online resources, which mostly focus on the latter subject. Himself a trained musician and a professional psychologist, the author shares advice and observations backed up by studies and scientific proofs. Although crucial for creating a sustainable and healthy life for musicians, information on performance psychology is usually unlikely or difficult to be accessed within the frame of regular music education and studies.
I’ve shared Kageyama’s resources many times with friends, and decided to do so again, using this space to talk about why it matters to me. I hope that normalising talking about the other, perhaps less obvious, elements belonging to our activity as musicians will facilitate access to resources of quality and ultimately will make the lives of fellow musicians happier. Here’s to smiles:
“Unfortunately, I think most of us have this perverse tendency to dismiss the friendly faces and worry more about the frowns we see. But there are lots of ways to practice reversing this habit — and it can be sort of fun to do as a personal experiment. From picking out friendly faces at a restaurant or social gathering, to selecting one or two especially engaged audience members to play to in a performance setting, we have opportunities around us all the time. The key, of course, is to get better at embracing positive cues around you before the day of an audition or performance.
And who knows — maybe cultivating this habit will make the world feel like a slightly friendlier place even outside of the auditions too.”
https://bulletproofmusician.com/gaze-control-way-keep-anxiety-spiraling-control-auditions/
Photo: Kinga Karpati